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Yesterday an image went viral that purported to show a billboard that had been rented by fans of Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark, asking Marvel Studios to "Bring Back Tony Stark." It seemed that there were at least some fans that feel so passionately about Iron Man that they spent money to try and convince Marvel, and other fans, that Tony needed to come back. And fans have some major thoughts after the image went around the internet.
A lot of people responded to the image of the billboard on Twitter, and most responses can be boiled down to "nah." While certainly a lot of people loved Tony Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of him, it doesn't seem like anybody is chomping at the bit to see him come back. Of course, not every response is about the core argument. Some are just really confused by the grammar of it all.
Clearly nobody proofread this billboard before sending it off to the printer, because the hashtag is absolutely awkward when looked at as a statement. Bring Back Tony Stark is really all it needs to say, and generally speaking shorter hashtags are better. Bring Tony Stark Back To Life would also work. But the actual wording leaves much to be desired.
Robert Downey Jr.'s tenure in the MCU can be seen on Disney+. You can use this link to sign up for the streaming service.
But language aside, it doesn't look like most folks are all that interested in seeing Tony Stark come back to life. There are a number of different reasons as to why. One is the simple fact that Marvel Studios has already announced plans to bring in a "new Iron Man" in the form of the Ironheart Disney+ series, so we don't need Tony Stark anymore.
While Marvel Studios certainly could bring Tony Stark back, nobody in Marvel Comics other than Uncle Ben has ever stayed dead, there's an understanding from many fans that Tony's sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame was important and that undoing that would cheapen the emotional payoff of the franchise. There's also a practical reason that we likely won't see Robert Downey Jr. in the MCU again, it would likely be incredibly expensive to get the actor to come back.
Still, it could happen. Any number of ways could be contrived to bring back the original Iron Man. Though some of them probably would not work as well as others.
For the most part, the characters who have died or otherwise been written out of the MCU have not come back, at least not permanently, but that doesn't mean everybody is gone for good. Of course, if Marvel is going to start bringing back characters, it seems there are other characters fans would like to see come back first.
Seeing Tony Stark again in the MCU is unlikely, though certainly not impossible. Maybe we'll get a new Multiverse Tony played by somebody else. That might be enough to make those fans happy.
